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Ousted Honduran Leader 'Returns'

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Ousted President Manuel Zelaya, pictured on September 3, 2009, on Monday said by telephone that he was back in the Honduran capital for the first time since the military sent him away almost three months ago. (AFP/File/Jewel Samad)

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says he has returned to his country, almost three months after the coup which overthrew him.

"I am here in Tegucigalpa," he told local TV. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also said Mr Zelaya was back.

But de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said Mr Zelaya was "in a hotel suite in Nicaragua".

And a UN spokeswoman denied a report that Mr Zelaya was in its office in Tegucigalpa, reported Efe news agency.

The left-leaning president had been living in exile in Nicaragua since being ousted at gunpoint on 28 June.

The country's de facto rulers, led by Mr Zelaya's former ally Roberto Micheletti, have threatened to arrest him if he returns. "I cannot give details, but I'm here," Mr Zelaya told Channel 36 television by telephone. He said he was "here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue".

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Further

On this day 50 years ago, a platoon of U.S. soldiers entered the hamlet of My Lai in South Vietnam and, in hours, massacred 504 unarmed women, children and old men. Over 300 of the victims were younger than 12; the G.I.s also raped many of the women and burned all the homes. Today, with torturers and warmongers on the rise, the horrors of My Lai serve as a grim warning. In America's wars of choice, says one vet, we are all "one step away from My Lai."